Webb, the former Miss Alabama USA and the girlfriend of University of Alabama quarterback AJ McCarron, was among 10 celebrities chosen for the show, which has a pretty simple premise: Famous people who (mostly) look good in swimsuits learn the art of competitive diving, while the pack is gradually whittled down by judges over the course of the series.

It’s a premise that has left some onlookers distinctly unimpressed.

I swear if #Splash is big, i will throw my television, which i dont even use, out my window and scream at everyone

That said, the show does have several potential points of interest. Look: Famous people in swimsuits! Famous people competing in swimsuits! Famous people potentially being humiliated in swimsuits! You could make a case that it’s entertainment in a nearly pure form. Or not.

#splash We're watching c-list actors fall in a pool.The terrorist have won people.

A montage of clips early in the show hinted at bloody lips, bloody noses and belly flops galore. The night’s drama, however, had more to do with the ability to create a story. The competitors who created good stories for themselves prevailed. Those who didn’t, sank.

Comedian Louie Anderson? He didn’t really dive. He toppled. But he toppled from a higher platform than anybody expected. He overcame fear and the physical limitations of a 400-pound body. That was a great story. Inspirational, even.

I'm about to watch Louie Anderson dive into a pool. Lord, what's become of me? #splash

Snow-skiing stuntman Rory Bushfield? He seemed to come in with all the gyroscopic body control one could want, but there was a problem. As coach Greg Louganis, the multiple Olympic medalist, observed during training: “We’ve got to get you going in headfirst. We’ve got to make you look like a diver.” Said Bushfield: “You don’t land on your head when you’re skiing. It’s not cool. My brain won’t let me dive.” He had a tendency to flop. But when the moment came, he climbed to the 10-meter platform and ripped off a back double somersault with a single twist. Great story.

Basketball legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar? He’s skyscraper tall and 65 years old. “My height is not an advantage. It’s easier to do somersaults when you’re not so long,” he noted in training. “Diving is a small person’s game.” His dive, frankly, was half-flop; his fellow competitors actually winced. But he had a great story, so the judges gave it to him.

Kareem Abdul Jabbar just jumped off a high dive and belly flopped - sentences I never thought I'd write. #Splash I don't want to like it...

But former Cosby kid Keshia Knight Pulliam and Webb? Two fit, competitive women who took a shot at it and did okay. Not much of a story. They ended up with the two lowest scores and went into a face-off.

Give Webb credit for this much: She was entertaining when telling the story of how she came to be there in the first place. “How am I famous? Good question.” The show gave viewers a recap of that moment in the BCS Championship Game when the camera singled her out in the crowd and broadcast host Brent Musburger spent a little too long admiring her beauty.

“Next thing you know, I’m a media sensation,” she said. “My life changed overnight. I’m being presented with so many opportunities.”

For the dive-off, Knight Pulliam stayed on the lowest, 10-foot platform. Webb moved up from the 16-foot platform to the 23-foot tier. Neither dive was perfect. Knight Pulliam’s was more technically challenging, but low. Webb’s was straightforward, but the story was that she was showing her fearlessness by going higher. Both judges, Olympic medalist David Boudia and USA Dive Team director Steve Foley, liked that story. Webb got to stay, Knight Pulliam had to go.

These judges in #Splash really suck, they're giving ppl points for being old or fat or pretty, not for their dives ð¤

Next week Webb (along with Abdul-Jabbar, Anderson and Bushfield) gets to be a benchwarmer. The other five contestants will make their first dives, and one of them will go home. They are Drake Bell, a star of the Nickelodeon series “Drake & Josh;” Chuy Bravo, an actor and a sidekick on the cable talk show “Chelsea Lately;” actress Nicole Eggert, whose credits include a role in “Baywatch;” Ndamukong Suh, a defensive tackle for the Detroit Lions; and Kendra Wilkinson, a former girlfriend of “Playboy” founder Hugh Hefner who has gone on to appear in a number of TV shows and to release two bestselling books.